4 months ago, I decided to start doing hair color behind the chair again. This may not seem like a big deal to most, but for me it came with a lot of pressure. I've been cutting hair behind the chair for 6 years & have a loyal clientelle that has followed me through 3 different locations now. That loyalty was built through my consistent work, both in showing up & being able to deliver the results they wanted.
There are so many variables when it comes to color. I've known this all too well since school. While I did do some fun color projects back then, I also did some nightmare color corrections. These color corrections stuck in my brain so firmly that it compelled me to no longer accept color clients after school, aside from the occasional friend or coworker.
The sad thing is, I did enjoy color. Even though sometimes it stressed me out, I really enjoyed the problem solving aspect of it. I enjoyed being able to really take my time on a project, to think through the color theory in order to get the best result. But I didn't enjoy letting people down. & sometimes with color, you let people down.
The same can be said of haircuts, but by this point in my career I have gotten to a point where I'm confident in my continued education, skills, & ability to communicate that I almost always give the client the haircut they want. Sometimes things aren't clarified in the consultation, or the hair texture decides to do something we don't want it to, but those are all things I can work through & solve if the client is willing to let me.
So what, you may be asking, compelled me to decide to reintroduce this service to my books after years of not doing it? Boredom mostly. It's one of the unfortunate truths I've had to accept about my ADHD, that with time everything loses it's novelty & I have to make it feel new to me again. In the past, this boredom could be remedied by attending a haircutting class, learning a new technique, or being inspired by a haircut I see online. But I hit a plateau with those methods & needed something more. I started noticing a lack of learning new things when attending classes. Now, let me be clear, I still very much so value continued education & will always persue bettering my skills. But the classes started feeling repetative. I realized that I had done so much continued education in the past 5 years, that a lot of the information I was taking in at these classes was just solidifying techniques I already knew. I wasn't learning new techniques. & eventually, even seeing some really cool haircuts online wasn't doing it for me either. I needed something more.
Since I started taking color clients behind the chair, I have done 7 hair color services. I've gone into each one with a clear vision & made sure to communicate my level of experience with each client. I've also offered them at an extremely affordable rate so I can feel less pressure while working.